The Rainbow Feather
by The Silver Bird of Winter
Summary: Morty believes that his sole purpose for existing is to make his father proud. When he discovers that Falkner has what he needs to achieve his goal, he befriends the bird lover in hopes that he'll finally receive the positivity from his father that he's longed for, and nothing more. AU-ish, rating may go up in later chapters.


**Hi, this is my first time publishing anything Pokemon-related, so I might get some details wrong here and there.**

**A few things, though, about this story: To avoid confusion, I'm just characterizing every canon character based off what they're like in the main series games. I'm not going by the anime or Pokemon Adventures that much. **

**And lastly, I don't own any part of the Pokemon Franchise. **

**Well, without further ado, let's begin ^^**

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><p>Morty looked up at a tree as three orange leaves came loose from their branches, courtesy of the autumn breeze.<p>

Ecruteak City had always been so beautiful to Morty, especially when the temperature began to drop and the leaves began to sport bright shades of red, orange, and gold. Morty smiled as he began to reach towards the leaves, hoping to catch one before they hit the ground.

"Autumn is so beautiful, isn't it, Morty?"

Morty turned to his father, who had appeared behind him without his knowledge. "Why, yes, father. The colors of the leaves, you see, they're just so intriguing-"

"Indeed, I think they're intriguing." Morty's father interrupted. "The reds and oranges are so lovely, so vivid, so...like Ho-oh."

Morty nodded, then started towards the gym again before he heard the overbearing voice.

"You do want to find Ho-oh right now, don't you?"

"Yes, father."

"Good, good. It would be extremely tragic if you didn't, you know. Who knows what'll happen to me, who knows what I'll do to-"

"I won't disappoint you, father." Morty nearly shouted, then ran towards the gym.

"No, not today, Morty."

"But...I want to check on the gym Pokemon. I haven't seen them in two days, and I'm worried about-"

"They're fine." Morty received a sharp reply, "Just take my word for it. If they weren't then they wouldn't have been able to win so many battles, especially just recently. Now, just go on home, for your own good."

Morty sighed. "Yes, father."

"Good boy." His father replied, much calmer. Disappointed, Morty headed towards the house he shared with his father, gazing into the clear skies as he walked. His eyes widened as a flying Pidgeot came into view, soaring in the grace and majesty that any bird Pokemon would have.

"How beautiful." Morty sighed, part of him wishing that he could soar with the Pidgeot somehow, although he knew that he would be given a hard time if he were to try it. He knew that if father ever heard about his dream to soar on the back of a bird Pokemon, he'd just laugh and make fun of him for it.

_But when I find Ho-oh, I could make that dream come true, maybe. Father'll allow it if I do, right?_

He watched as the Pidgeot landed on the ground, and a blue-haired boy he didn't notice before hopped off its back with a content smile. _Another tourist_, Morty thought as he turned away from them, focusing his attention on heading home once more. _  
><em>

_There hasn't been a trace of Ho-oh's presence for months. I wonder how I'll be able to please Father anymore..._

"Look out!"

Morty was abruptly brought out of his thoughts when he heard the voice, then turned his head to see a flying blue object before it slammed into his face.

"Ow..." He muttered, rubbing at his aching cheek. He glanced at what hit him, which turned out to be a Swablu who was more than happy to make a nest out of his hair after it recovered from the impact with his face.

"Nuage!" Morty looked in the direction of the voice, realizing that it belonged to the blue-haired boy who had been soaring on a Pidgeot just moments ago. The Swablu leapt off Morty's head at the sound of his name and flew onto the other boy's head, making itself comfortable in his otherwise neatly combed hair. Morty gave the two a puzzled look as the boy muttered something under his breath, then headed towards Morty.

"I'm really sorry about that. He just has to sit on someone's head whenever he sees a hairstyle that he likes." Morty's confused expression didn't leave his face as he continued to stare in wonder at the boy and his troll of a Swablu. Unable to find any words, he merely nodded. "Yeah, I know, it gets really embarrassing sometimes. But I heard it's actually a common habit for Swablu, so I guess there's no real point in trying to stop him." Morty continued to nod, wondering why on Earth this random boy would be trying to talk to him like that.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." The boy suddenly said, "I completely forgot to introduce myself. My name's Falkner, and I'm just visiting from Violet City."

_Falkner? _Morty thought. He'd definitely heard that name somewhere. Before he could remember, though, Falkner extended a hand to Morty which made the latter jump back. "So what's your n-"

"Why did you do that?" Morty snapped at Falkner, to his surprise. "Are you going to hit me?"

"No? It's just a handshake."

"A what now?"

"Uh..." Falkner's voice trailed off as he gawked at Morty. Never in his life did he think he would have to come up with a good enough definition to explain the purpose of a handshake to someone. "Well...you see, it's, uh..."

"Yes?"

"It's just this thing that everyone does when they meet people. Or when they make new friends."

"Really now?" Came the skeptical reply. "I've never done that with any of my friends when I met them."

"Wait, what?" Falkner lowered his arm.

"I've never done this kind of thing with my friends, or at least, I can't do it with them at all. Most of them don't have arms, you see."

"Okay then." Falkner said slowly. This conversation was only getting weirder with each sentence they exchanged.

"What, you don't know that Gastly don't have arms?"

"Oh, I see." Falkner nodded in understanding. "Sorry, I thought you meant human friends. Now that would've been pretty creepy."

"Huh." Morty simply replied, not sure what else to say.

"So, what's your name?"

"Oh, I'm Morty Matsuba."

To Morty's surprise, that answer made Falkner's blue eyes sparkle. "So you're Ecruteak's former Gym Leader."

"How did you know?"

"My dad's the Leader of the Violet City Gym. He would always talk a lot about the other Gym Leaders when he met up with them."

"So you're the one." Morty said as recognition hit him. "You're the son that Walker's always telling stories about."

"I see." Falkner replied, looking a bit sullen. "I just hope he still remembers me at this point."

"What do you mean?"

"He's been bored in the past two years, so he's been venturing out of the gym a lot. He's even started going to all these far away places, so much that he's been neglecting his gym duties lately. It's actually been months since I last saw him here, so in that time I've been battling challengers in his place and such."

Morty huffed. "Sounds like the opposite of my dad."

"I guess. Everytime mine goes somewhere he always brings back all this strange stuff. Though I did find something I liked in his last pile of souvenirs..."

"I'm listening."

"My dad somehow brought home a feather in the middle of all those rocks and fossils. I've never seen anything like it, though. It was shimmering, in seven different colors even, and not even my dad could figure out what bird Pokemon it came fr-"

"A rainbow feather?!" Morty said, surprising even himself with his raised voice. Nuage shot a glare at him for disturbing his peaceful little La-la land.

"Yes? Is everything alright?"

_Better than alright,_ Morty thought. _That feather could make Father more happy than I've seen him be in my entire life. Why...this feather could be what we really need to find Ho-oh!_

"May I see the feather?"

"Oh, I actually don't have it with me right now. I left it at home, so you'd have to come visit me at Violet City if you really want to see it."

**Ring. Ring. Ring.**

Falkner took out his Pokegear. "Hang on, Morty, let me take this call...Ok, now I can hear you." There was as long pause as Morty heard nothing but indecipherable yelling at the other end of the line. "Alright, alright, I understand, I'm so sorry for making you wait...I'll be there in thirty minutes, tops. Alright, I'll be seeing you." Falkner sighed as he hung up the Pokegear. "It's this kid named Joey. He's been wanting to challenge me with his top-percentage Rattata for a week now, so looks like I'll need to get that done before anything...so, I guess we'll have to postpone the visit to another time."

"I can live with that, I guess." Morty replied.

"Alright, then." Falkner returned the still-disgruntled Nuage to a Pokeball, then sent out his Pidgeot.

"See you later..." Morty said as he turned around to walk back home.

"Wait, Morty!" Falkner called out to him. "We are friends, right?"

"Well, um, yes! I think so!"

"Great!" Falkner shouted back to him as the Pidgeot spread its wings and began flying upwards. "Take care!"

Morty watched as the bird began to soar gracefully and eventually disappear into the afternoon sky.

_He didn't seem half bad,_ Morty thought. _Too bad Father doesn't like me having human friends. But if it's for a good cause, then he'll allow it, right? After all, this could be my chance. For the first time in months, Father, I can make you proud._

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><p><strong>And that's the end of the first chapter. Again, this is my first time publishing a Pokemon-related fic, so helpful tips and reviews are appreciated ^^<strong>


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